Keeping EE staff takes more than high pay

Apr 20, 2017

Employment equity professionals consider career progression and a better work-life balance to be highly motivating factors to join and stay within a business – and higher pay may no longer guarantee a candidate’s signature.
Research from Robert Walters shows that, despite having to contend with a severely candidate-short market, a large number of employers are neglecting to offer opportunities like career development and work-life balance to attract and retain EE professionals, which undermines their potential for long-term growth.
Nic Sephton-Poultney, country manager at Robert Walters, comments: “A lot of companies acknowledge the importance of career progression or better work-life balance, but are not using this as a strategy to appeal to EE professionals. Businesses that act on what employees want from their career are more likely to appeal to a broader cross-section of the market.”
Businesses will need to review competitive recruitment strategies to secure top talent, according to the report. Strategies like shortening the hiring process and reducing the time from interview to offer can be effective in securing candidates who are engaged in more than one offer.
Keeping existing staff motivated by offering the opportunity for training or the chance to take on new responsibilities as a way of developing their careers is also essential to retaining talent.
“One in five hiring managers say they do not have a plan in place and no intention of developing new strategies for addressing this issue,” says Sephton-Poultney. “With many EE professionals not willing to move just for money, hiring managers need to revise their hiring strategies to reflect the changing environment and to appeal to a wider range of candidates.”
A massive 42% of hiring managers say EE talent shortages have resulted in higher costs to the business when it comes to retaining existing staff as many move to new employers to develop their career. In addition, 28% of hiring managers say that they have high staff turnover among EE employees.
“Employers have traditionally always been able to ‘pick and choose’ their ideal candidate,” Sephton-Poultney says. “However, as skills shortages become more acute, the balance of demand has begun to favour candidates.
“In today’s competitive market employers can still secure top talent, but by doing so will mean broadening their approach and ensuring they are opening up new recruitment channels, especially to save costs.”